Sunday, July 17, 2011
More Traveling Adventures
Wow, first day after the festival and we had to run to two trains already! See, we were supposed to meet at 6:15a to go to the station for our 6:41a train. It usually takes about 10 minutes plus a few more to get there, but by 6:26a we still had not heard from Christian, so Jennifer went on ahead to the train station and we went to find Christian at his hotel, up the hill near the church. His alarm had been going off for awhile but he slept through it. I think all of us stayed out a lot later than usual, since it was the last night we would have with our new friends and colleagues. Christian didn't come outside immediately, but we knew he wasn't carrying any big bags like we were (my bags weighed about 55-65 pounds, I think, and consisted of two backpacks--big one on back and little on front). Therefore, when it started to rain, we started the walk to the train station, Korinne in front and me lagging a bit behind, watching for Christian. We made it to the square in front of our hotel when I saw Christian running --really fast!-- from a different direction. Uh oh, at this rate he was going to pass me quickly, so I started booking it, jogging at a pace I hoped I could maintain for at least a few minutes.
Well, obviously I was not used to running with that much extra weight, cause Christian and I had to stop running when we had almost caught up to Korinne. We finally made it through the tunnel and were crossing the river when we looked at the time again: 6:37. We couldn't remember if the train left at 6:47 or 6:41, but we had this distinct sinking feeling that it was the earlier time.
Panic and scrambling! Time to run again. Up the hill as fast as we could, across the street without even slowing down (lucky no cars were coming), then down the stairs to the tunnel that led to the platform. Which platform?!? 50/50 chance: there are two choices.
We chose the first and were yelling "Jenniferrrr!!!!" as we got to the stairs. Christian ran up the stairs two at a time to try to see if we were on the correct platform, and at the top of the stairs was Mark, hoping to help by grabbing a bag from one of us but not realizing that our bags were strapped to us. He settled for cheering Korinne and Christian on, as they were 5-7 seconds ahead of me by now. Apparently my stair climbing needs some work, because before I got halfway up the flight of stairs My running feet started to stumble. At that moment, I knew I couldn't run any more, so I yelled, "I can't do this anymore!" I must give a huge thanks to Mark for grabbing my hand and kinda helping to pull me up the last few stairs, haha. As soon as we reached the top of the stairs, however, we see Christian and Korinne make it when the doors started beeping their final beep before closing permanently. Unfortunately, it was probably about 50 feet away, so we started sprinting as fast as my legs would carry me.
We made it, as the doors were closing.
I was so winded that I literally just lay down on a few seats without even taking my backpacks off. After a few minutes, I finally felt like I could breathe again. I was so tired. Thankfully, it was only a 45-50 minute ride, but it sure was nice to catch our breath before the next train station. I was hoping to nap on the train but there was a bit too much adrenaline in my system for that, I think.
Strasburg!
Strasburg was completely worth it, though. We went inside the Notre Dame de Strasburg, and they happened to be doing a midday Sunday service. We heard the organist play this amazing piece, but the choir was the amazing part. They sang this piece that was just breathtaking. I was very glad that Korinne ended up videotaping it so we could hear a semblance of this again. It was very chilly this day, and a little rainy.
Strasburg is so incredibly neat. Since it's very near the German-French border, many things were written in both languages. Beautiful architecture, especially in Petite France. We ate breakfast at a local wonderful place that I forget the name of, but our big meal of the day was lunch. We ate at the oldest house in Strasburg, where their specialty was sauerkraut, and boy, was it ever amazing! We split two dishes between the four of us, both with a good butter sauce and fish on top. Wonderful.
Later on, leaving Strasburg, Korinne and I said our temporary goodbyes to Jennifer and Christian, as they were returning to Saarburg and we were going on our Paris adventure. We thought we almost missed our train, because we got on the wrong train! Well, not the "wrong train," persay, but the wrong half of the train! We had to get out of the car we were in and run to the next train that was connected to this one. We were literally running, again, because we were worried we would miss it. It was so stressful, but we made it! Whew. As it was, still, the train definitely had started moving before we were seated.
Arrival time in Paris: 9:36p. Yay! Now time for metro train subway to our stop near the hotel. We get on the correct line, but we quickly discover it is actually the wrong direction. No worries, we are not far from the end of the line, so we will simply ride it and take it back the other direction, no biggie.
The last station arrives, and everyone gets off quickly. We are the only ones left in the train, and stand up when this nice looking man figures we are English speaking and says, "this is the End!" followed by, "where are you going?". He found out and says in a very emphatic voice, "you have made a mistake!". And repeats it a few times. We were glad for the help and thank him. Back going the right direction.
Finally! Over an hour from leaving the train station, we make it to our train station hop. Our hotel desk person can speak English, so he gave us directions about the room and breakfast.
Later, I will tell the rest of our Paris visit in a different post. Always an adventure!
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